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Istanbul in Paris

This
morning Simay woke up, got dressed, and went straight to the Orly Airport.
Because at 7 o’clock (Parisian time) her mother’s plane took off from Sabiha Gökcen
in Istanbul.
After a nice breakfast with both French and Turkish input, we went back
outside to show Zahide our neighbourhood. Zahide has been to Paris multiple
times, but it is the first time she is visiting us in our new apartment. It is
also the first time she sees the non-touristic parts of the 16th arrondissement. After a quick
walk in the streets we turned our heads towards one of the best things about
the 16th: Bois de Boulogne. It was the perfect day for a stroll in
the park, warm enough so you felt like you might get a little tan, but not so warm that you were sweating. I think I actually managed to get a little sunburned (surprise…). After Simay had asked for the 5th
time; “where is it?”, we finally saw the row-boats.

It’s so
amazing to have the opportunity to walk for 15 minutes and then be able to lend
a boat, and truly escape all of the city stress that might emerge on a busy
Saturday in Paris. I have told Simay multiple times that I would rather have a
smaller apartment here, close to Bois de Boulogne, than a bigger apartment anywhere
else in the city. It is so amazing to just put on your shoes and go to the
park. No metro needed, no bike needed, although there are multiple
opportunities to bike in the park.

When Zahide
first arrived this morning, I had the strange experience of actually mixing up
French and Turkish. When I told my brain that we now had to speak a foreign
language, it went automatically to French. The good thing about it is that I was able to come up with whole conversations that we could have, in my head, the
bad thing is that I realised that it was in French not Turkish, so it didn’t help
much.